Digimon Adventure tri.: Ending 5

In this episode, we hope the finale focuses on wrapping up essential character arcs more than the exposition fest, no matter how much one is needed. It’s also a good time to lay out plans for reviewing the last two dub movies, Appmon, and everything else going on outside of the site!


The success of Coexistence lives and dies on its ability to both harvest seeds planted in early chapters and position things for the big finale. The way it resolves some of the older threads are brilliant: Taichi’s more resolute in supporting his broader perspectives, while Yamato’s fear and later sympathy for Taichi’s situation leads to an understanding that shapes his sudden leadership. Of course, as far as how well it teed everything up for the finale... well, that depends on the finale, now doesn’t it?

The positioning looks pretty good. You’ve got the main team suffering a huge setback that the main cast can play off of. You’ve got a massive threat in Ordinemon that will likely require something deeper than sheer firepower to resolve, particularly from two of the characters who need some attention. You’ve got other threats that do need sheer firepower and potentially a global response... the presence of which may have been alluded to in Reunion. Then you’ve got Maki in the Dark Ocean and Taichi and Daigo stuck heaven knows where, both prime locations to run into some of the kids that went missing back in the opener. Everything’s set up a certain way, but only if Our Future runs with it does that element become successful.

At this point, there’s no way every minute plot detail is going to be explained to everyone’s satisfaction. That could take up all movie and all that exposition would drag the whole thing down (not that Digimon doesn’t sometimes burn an episode for the cause). Of course we expect a few answers, and which questions its tackles and the quality of those answers will be part of the final score. But tri. concerns itself less with plot particulars and more with what the characters are going through and how their issues relate to core themes. That’s where most of the points will be gained or lost.

If we’re to judge Our Future on anything, it’s how well the most crucial character arcs are resolved. Hikari flew under the radar for 4.75 movies until her primary crisis blew up in everyone’s face. How she resolves this is going to be a vital component of tri., as well as a long overdue chance to see some meaningful growth from her. Yamato snuck up on us and turned what looked to be a pointless conflict with Taichi into a deep look at how one’s lack confidence can mess up the other. Now we’ll see if Yamato can lead effectively trying to follow Taichi’s cues while not always understanding them. Meiko’s had some moments of encouraging strength and catastrophic setback, and all of the time invested in her has to pay off with a decisive show of courage validating her as a digidestined. Failing to do so would suddenly cast doubt on why everyone else believed she was worth it. And Daigo and Maki deserve closure on their alternate portrayals of digidestined, whether or not they get the endings they want.

Since this is the only time I like talking about site stuff, there’s a lot to go over, particularly as it concerns our timeline. Normally tri. dub reviews happen as soon as I see them, but Coexistence screens right in the middle of our breakdown of Our Future. To keep things orderly, we’ll finish off Our Future before posting the review of the Coexistence dub. Expect the post for the dub of tri.’s finale right after it airs in September, with our final tri. wrap-up a little later once all the discs are out, giving us time to sit back and let them breathe for a while before rendering final judgment. Appmon will follow (unless a dub airs before the final tri. disc), but we’ll see where things are at before we make any promises on that one.

And now for some further self-promotion in case you somehow need more of this. After becoming a regular guest host last year, I’m now the official co-host of the With the Will podcast, breaking down all the latest Digimon news and discussing whatever subject is on our minds, with episodes every 2-4 weeks. Check the archives for our interview with Jeff Nimoy! Audio of last year’s massive Kitsune Kon panel with me and six Digimon voice actors is available on my SoundCloud. This year I’ll host Digimon panels at Anime Central in Chicago May 18-20 and again at Kitsune Kon in Green Bay July 20-22 (I’m not expecting guests this time, but it’s a possibility).

After finishing my mass interseason fanfiction Neverworld last year, popular demand and a bunch of new characters to play with has prompted a sequel! Look for a teaser for season two, Nexusworld, next week as new goggleheads Tagiru, Daigo, and Haru are pulled in and join the team. Our Amazon affiliate link is still up and it’s still much appreciated when anyone does their shopping through it. For a more direct way of sending some love, I now have a Ko-Fi page, which makes it easy for you to make small donations to help support the site.

Well, the music’s certainly appropriate. It’s simultaneously sweet and full of pensive dread that fits this movie to a tee. Even without fancy animation, the simple sight of the nine digidestined fading to the nine partners is effective and carries the sense of things getting darker before the big finish.

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